The driving force for crude oil replacement technology innovation is the desire for less carbon- intensive and environment friendly cleaner fuels or feedstock which are cheap & plentiful in supply and easy in handling & transportable. One promising emerging technology is the conversion to methane under non-oxidative conditions to aromatics. Two kinds of Mo carbide catalysts have been reported to be active, namely the hcp beta-Mo2C and the fcc alpha-MoC 1-x which can be produced by different preparation routes. The reaction is carried out in a quartz tube reactor using Mo-modified HZSM-5 zeolite catalyst at reaction temperature of 700°C and ambient pressure. The main products are benzene and naphthalene. The drawback of this reaction is the rapid deactivation of the catalyst by coking. The main objective of this study is to optimize catalytic activity or increase methane conversion with high selectivity towards aromatic with reduced coke formation and improved catalytic stability. Both the hcp beta-Mo2C and the fcc alpha-MoC 1-x.catalytic phase was investigated to optimize the catalytic activity. From the studies it was observed that the hcp beta-Mo2C have higher methane conversion than the fcc alpha-MoC1-x catalyst under the same reaction conditions. The higher catalytic activity for hcp beta-Mo2C catalyst is attributed to the higher coke formation as compared to its fcc alpha-MoC1-x counterpart which has lower coke yield and selectivity but higher aromatic yield and selectivity. A blend of the 2 phases gave improve catalytic conversion and aromatic yield with better catalyst stability.
Keywords:, GHSV, conversion, selectivity, aromatic, coke.